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William Jefferson/target
Wackos on the ballot :Harvested on Oct 31, 2008 from http://www.politicsmagazine.com/magazine-issues/november-2008/wackos-on-the-ballot/ : by Doug Daniels Sometimes it seems politicians are so safe they couldn’t get knocked out of office even if they tried. Nine-term Democratic Congressman William “Dollar Bill” Jefferson from New Orleans may be one of those Teflon-coated pols. Jefferson, who is Louisiana’s first black member of Congress since Reconstruction (as well as the first member of Congress to have his office raided by the FBI), got enough votes last month in the 2nd District Democratic primary to make the Nov. 4, 2008, runoff against fellow Democrat Helena Moreno. The winner will go on to the general election in December. On the face of it, it’s astounding that voters gave Jefferson this opportunity to fight another day. After all, he has been indicted on 16 counts of federal charges including corruption and money laundering, and will go on trial next month. Not that he’s ever been derailed by run-ins with the law before. Despite being under investigation two years ago, Jefferson won reelection without breaking a sweat. And although he has been removed from his congressional leadership positions and has become a national punch line for allegedly taking bribes, Jefferson has been fairly successful in painting himself as a major player who can represent his district better than any newcomer. But consider what he’s asking the voters to overlook. In 2006, an FBI raid of Jefferson’s home in Washington, D.C. turned up $90,000 in alleged bribe money that the congressman had stashed in his freezer, stowed neatly in an assortment of food containers. Jefferson insists he’s innocent, but according to the feds, the cash was part of a $100,000 bribe Jefferson had been videotaped accepting from an FBI informant. The federal indictment also alleges more than half a dozen other instances of bribery. The case is full of bizarre little anecdotes. At one point, Jefferson was having dinner with an FBI informant who was wired for sound, so they were passing each other notes. “All these damn notes we’re writing to each other as if we’re talking as if the FBI is watching,” the congressman said. One witness, Vernon Jackson, who headed an information technology business in Kentucky, has already pleaded guilty to bribing Jefferson with more than $400,000 worth of cash, stock and profit-sharing deals in exchange for Jefferson’s influence in securing lucrative business deals for Jackson’s company. And, adding insult to injury, in the days following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, as rescue efforts were still in full swing, Jefferson used National Guard resources—including a rescue helicopter—to retrieve personal possessions from his New Orleans home. Despite all this, Moreno, who is Hispanic, faces the harsh racial realities of New Orleans politics for non-black candidates. And many observers believe Jefferson will have a further leg up in the runoff because Barack Obama is expected to mobilize black voters on Election Day. In fact, several aides to former primary opponents of Jefferson have questioned Moreno’s chances in the runoff. Cheron Brylski, a spokeswoman for Troy Carter, one of Jefferson’s primary challengers, told the Baton Rouge Advocate she believes Jefferson will coast to reelection. “If I was Moreno I would save my money, run for council, state Senate or something else—but get out of this race. There’s not enough votes for her.” But Lance Hill, a political science professor at Tulane University in New Orleans, says he’s not ready to count Moreno out yet, because the loss of black voters after Katrina, along with what he sees as a black community disgusted with corruption, could prove fatal to Jefferson. “The political advances of the white community here have been largely premised on the argument that African American culture is politically corrupt, and the black community is beginning to respond by saying, ‘We’re politically fragile right now, and so we have to be twice as honest.” John Couvillon, a Baton-Rouge based Republican consultant, says he sees the potential for a tight race in the runoff, with Jefferson’s fate largely dependent on who the other primary challengers endorse. “I see a 50/50 chance of Congressman Jefferson hanging on,” Couvillon says. “You have to remember that New Orleans has a large low-wage population with a small population of elites, just like a Savannah, Georgia. And while Jefferson got only 25 percent of the Democratic primary vote, Moreno made Rep. Cedric Richmond mad by questioning his ethics. So it’s not clear how he or the other “also rans” will go. And, yes, Katrina has shrunk the Democratic voting base, but that only means that an 80 percent Democratic district is 70-75 percent Democratic.” If Jefferson does win the Nov. 4 runoff, he’ll run essentially unopposed in the general election in December. And that would seem to indicate there’s only one way Jefferson will ever give up his seat—if he’s dragged off to prison kicking and screaming.